Edmond Paris - The Secret History of the Jesuits

M. de Montalembert admitted it proudly... He said: "I am defending (34) "Oeuvres de Napoleon III" (Amyot et Plon, Paris 1856, II, pp.31 and 33). (35) Adolphe Michel, op.cit., pp.66 ss.

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justice by backing as well as possible the government of the Republic, which has done so much to save order and maintain the union of the French people; it especially rendered more services to the Catholic Church than all the other governments in power during the last two centuries".(36) All this happened more than one hundred years ago, but seems rather familiar today. But let us see how the "Republic", presided over by prince Louis-Napoleon, was acting internationally.

The revolution of 1848 had, amongst other repercussions in Europe, provoked the uprising of the Romans against Pope Pius IX, their temporal sovereign, who had fled to Gaete. The Roman Republic had been proclaimed. Through a scandalous paradox, it was the French Republic, in agreement with the Austrians and the king of Naples, who put back on the throne the undesirable sovereign.

"A French regiment besieged Rome, took it on the 2nd of June 1849 and restored pontifical power; it managed to maintain itself with the help of a French division of occupation which left Rome only after the first disasters in the Franco-German war of 1870".(37)

This beginning was very promising.

"The coup of the 2nd of December 1851 brought about the proclamation of the Empire. Louis-Napoleon, President of the Republic, had favoured the Jesuits in every way. Now emperor, he refused nothing to his accomplices and allies. The clergy poured out its blessings and "Te Deum" profusely on the massacres and proscriptions of the 2nd of December. The one responsible for this abominable ambush was looked upon as a providential saviour: "The archbishop of Paris, Monseigneur Sibour, who saw the massacres on the boulevard, exclaims:

"The man who was prepared by God has come; the finger of God was never more visible than in the events which produced these great results".

The bishop of Saint-Flour said from his pulpit: "God pointed out Louis-Napoleon; He already had elected him to be emperor. Yes, my dear brethren, God consecrated him beforehand through the blessing of His pontiffs and priests; He acclaimed him Himself; can we not recognise God's elect?"

The bishop of Nevers falsely saluted "Providence's visible instrument".

"These pitiable adulations, which could be multiplied still further, deserved a reward. This reward was a complete freedom given to the Jesuits as long as the Empire lasted. The Society of Jesus was literally master of France for eighteen years... she enriched herself, multiplied her establishments and spread her influence. Her action was felt in all the important events of that time, especially in the expedition to Mexico and the declaration of war in (36) Adolphe Michel, op.cit. pp.55,66.

(37) Larousse, VII, p.371.

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187O".(38)

"The Empire means peace", declared the new sovereign. But, barely two years after he acceeded to the throne, the first of all those wars which succeeded each other throughout his reign started; history could regard the motives which brought about these wars as unconnected if we didn't see what united them: the defence of the Roman Church's interests. The Crimean war, the first of these mad enterprises which weakened us and was not nationally profitable, is a characteristic example.

It was not someone anticlerical, but the Abbe Brugerette, who wrote:

"One must read the speeches the famous Theatine (Father Ventura) gave in the chapel of Les Tuileries during Lent in 1857. He presented the Empire's restorationas God's work... and praised Napoleon III for having defended the religion in Crimea and made the great days of the Crusades shine a second time in the East... The Crimean war was regarded as a compliment to the Roman expedition... It was praised by the whole clergy, full of admiration for the religious fervour of the troops besieging Sebastapol. Saint-Beuve movingly narrated how Napoleon III had sent an image of the Virgin to the French fleet".(39)

What was this expedition which aroused the enthusiasm of the clergy. M. Paul Leon, member of the Institute, explains: "A quarrel between monks revives the question of the East: it was born out of rivalries between the La t i n and Orthodox Churches regarding the protection of the Holy places (in Palestine).

Who would watch over Bethlehem's churches, hold the keys, direct the work?

How is it possible that such small matters could set two great empires against each other?... But, behind the Latin monks is France's Catholic party, provided with ancient privileges and supporter of the new regime; behind the growing demands of the Orthodox, who had grown in numbers, is the Russian influence".(40)

The Czar invokes the protection of the Orthodox Church which he has to assure and, to make it effective, asks that his fleet should use the Dardanelles passage; England, which is backed by France, refuses, and the war breaks out.

"France and England can reach the Czar only through the Black Sea and the Turkish alliance... From now on, the war of Russia becomes the Crimean war and is entirely centered on the siege of Sebastopol, a costly episode without issue. Bloody battles, deadly epidemics and inhuman sufferings cost France one hundred thousand dead".(41)

We must point out that these one hundred thousand dead were Christ's (38) Adolphe Michel, op.cit., pp.71-72.

(39) Abbe J. Brugerette: "Le Pretre francais et la societe contemporaine" (Lethielleux, Paris 1933, I, pp.168 and 180).

(40) and (41) Paul Leon, of the Institute, "La guerre pour la Paix", (Ed. Fayard, Paris 1950

pp.321-323).

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soldiers and glorious "martyrs of the faith", according to Monseigneur Sibour, Archbishop of Paris, who declared at that time: "The Crimean war, between France and Russia, is not a political war, but a holy war; it is not a State fighting another State, people fighting other people, but singularly a war of religion, a Crusade..."(42)

The admission is not ambiguous. Anyway, haven't we heard the same, not long ago, during the German occupation, expounded in identical terms by the prelates of His Holiness Pius XII and by Pierre Laval himself, president of the Council of Vichy?

In 1863, it is the expedition to Mexico. What is it about? To transform a lay-republic into an empire and offer it to Maximilien, archduke of Austria.

Austria is the papacy's number one pillar. The aim is also to erect a barrier which would contain the influence of the Protestant United States over the States of South America, strongholds of the Roman Church.

M. Albert Bayet wrote with sagacity: "The war's aim is to establish a Catholic empire in Mexico and curtail the peoples' right to self rule; as during the Syrian campaign and the two Chinese campaigns, it tends especially to serve catholic interests".(43)

We know how, in 1867, after the French army had re-embarked, Maximilien, the unfortunate champion of the Holy See, was made prisoner when Queretaro surrendered and was shot dead, making way for a republic of which the victor Juarez was president.

Nevertheless, the time was getting nearer when France was to pay, once again, much more dearly for the political support the Vatican assured the imperial throne. While the French army was spilling its blood in the four corners of the world, and getting weaker while defending interests which were not hers, Prussia, under the heavy hand of the future "iron chancellor", was busy expanding its military might in order to unite the German states in a single block." Austria was the first victim of its will and power. In agreement with Prussia which was to seize the Danish duchess of Schleswig and Holstein, Austria was cheated by her accomplice. The war which followed was soon won by Prussia at Sadowa on the 3rd of July 1866. It was a terrible blow for the ancient Hapsburg monarchy which was declining; the blow was just as hard for the Vatican, as Austria had been for so long its most faithful stronghold within the germanic lands. From novw on, Protestant Prussia will exercise her hegemony over them. Unless... the Roman Church finds a "secular arm"